The next podium
KÜS Team Bernhard was able to celebrate another podium finish in Saturday's DTM race at the Red Bull Ring: Laurin Heinrich (21, Kürnach) crossed the finish line in second place in the Porsche 911 GT3 R with starting number 75. Teammate Ayhancan Güven (25, Gronau) added five points to the championship with his eleventh place in Austria in the sister car with starting number 24.
In the morning qualifying, which was a particular challenge due to the predominantly wet track and a red flag interruption, Laurin and Ayhancan ensured an outstanding result for the team from Landstuhl in the Palatinate: Laurin secured the first ever pole position in the DTM for himself and the team , “Can” rounded off the top performance in Styria with third starting position. There were also three championship points for Laurin and one for Ayhancan.
After the start, Laurin was able to confidently maintain the lead in very difficult track conditions - drizzle, the slope dried out at times and in places - and "Can" took second place early on. But while the 2022 Carrera Cup champion was able to break away from the lead, his teammate had to give up during the course of the race and came to the mandatory pit stop in seventh place. In the end, the Turkish Porsche contract driver still managed to score points with eleventh place. Laurin came to the service as the leader, but was unable to maintain his first place immediately after the pit stop with the tires still cold and ended up in second place. Even after a safety car phase, he confidently defended it to the finish and was able to celebrate his second podium of the season and a whopping 20 points for the overall DTM standings.
The Sunday race, which also lasts an hour, starts at 1.30 p.m. and will be broadcast live in full length on ProSieben and ran.de.
#24 Ayhancan Güven: “We discussed our plan before the race and it worked. After a good start, Laurin and I were in first and second place. At the beginning I was able to stick with him, but around lap ten I lost ground. Since I had problems with my tires, I didn't get involved in duels and just drove as fast as I could. After the pit stop I was involved in a few duels and sometimes went off the line; with the profileless slicks it was also very slippery. The safety car didn't really help us either. I just wanted to overtake a few cars that had cold tires, but the safety car allowed them to hold their position. Ultimately it came in eleventh place. Of course, this is not the result I had hoped for before the start. We will now analyze why I slowed down in the middle part of the race. I'm super happy for the team. At least we did a really good job in qualifying and Laurin made it to the podium. All in all, a great success for our team. Hopefully we’ll be successful with both cars tomorrow.”
#75 Laurin Heinrich: “I got off to a good start from pole position. I felt very comfortable in the wet conditions and was able to ride away a bit. I was already hoping that it could even be enough for my first victory. But I was a little late in the pits, the track dried out extremely quickly, which was hard to predict. Kelvin van der Linde then flew past me on his already warm tires. I’m still super happy, it was a great race and we can build on that.”
Team boss Timo Bernhard: “A great qualifying with both cars on the first two rows of the grid, plus the pole position, our first ever in the DTM, it was also the first for Laurin. It was great to start from P1 and P3. We even had a double lead in the first few laps in the rain, which was great to see. The strategy was difficult. We ran rain tires, but it wasn't really wet, so it was very difficult to find the right time to switch to slicks. But I think the strategy worked and we were able to take another podium with Laurin in P2. I'm very happy for the whole team. Unfortunately, Can fell behind a bit with the rain tires and ended up eleventh after a hard fight. But his pace, especially with slicks, would have been enough to get him much further up the field. Both cars in the points, one on the podium, higher than ever in qualifying - it was a beautiful day of racing. We want to build on this in the three remaining races of the season.”
Text: Peter Schäffner
Photos: Group C Photography (high-resolution images are listed in the Team75 Motorsport press portal. Access data available at presse@team75motorsport.de)